US Vice President Kamala Harris arrived in Ghana on Sunday at the start of a three-nation African tour, as Washington looks to boost diplomatic ties on the continent.
The United States will increase investment in Africa and help spur economic growth, Harris said, at the start of a week-long tour of the continent aimed at countering China's influence.
The trip, which includes Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia and runs until April 2, follows a summit hosted by US President Joe Biden in Washington in December between US officials and their counterparts from Africa, where both China and Russia are increasingly influential.
Ahead of the U.S.-Africa summit in December, the United States allocated $55 billion to the continent over the next three years. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced $150 million in new humanitarian aid to the Sahel region during a visit to Niger this month.
Harris is accompanied on the tour by her husband Douglas Emhoff, who were received in the Ghanaian capital by Vice President Mohammed Bawmia and senior government officials.
Gagnon's students greeted the vice president with drums and dancing, waving Ghanaian flags at Kotoka International Airport.
Harris Tour Goals
In brief remarks, Harris stressed that her visit gives her an opportunity to deepen the relationship between the United States and African partners.
"We look forward to this trip as a further expression of the long-standing, enduring and critical relationship and friendship between the people of the United States and those living on the continent of Africa," she said.
"I am very excited about the future of Africa. I am very excited about the impact of Africa's future on the rest of the world including the United States."
The trip is part of Washington's strategy to curb the growing influence of Beijing and Moscow on the resource-rich continent and send a more positive message from the United States, U.S. officials said.
Senior U.S. officials said last week that Harris would discuss China's involvement in technology-related and economic issues in Africa of interest to the United States, as well as China's involvement in debt restructuring.
China has made huge investments in Africa in recent decades, including in infrastructure and natural resource development, while Russia's influence is also growing, including through the deployment of troops from the Wagner Special Military Group to help governments in several countries.
Harris' trip follows other visits to Africa by members of President Joe Biden's cabinet, as well as his wife, Jill.
The trip, which will lead her Wednesday to Tanzania and then Friday to Zambia, has a special dimension: Harris, the first woman from the black minority to reach the vice presidency in the United States, visited Zambia as a child, where her grandmother (mother's mother) from India worked.
The visit will also allow her to bolster her foreign policy credentials, in anticipation of Biden running for a second term in 2024 when she will be on his side.